Zoo Ohrada Zoo Ohrada / Zoo Hluboká News

Unfortunate news - yesterday, a visitor arrived with her dog a staffordshire bull terrier but left her dog in parked car at the parking lot of the zoo (dogs are prohibited to enter Hluboka, unlike many other Czech zoos) on blazing sun. A passing-by person had seen him in bad condition and called the police. The dog was sent to vet but died later. It spent less than an hour in the locked car while outside temperature was under 30 °C (10 degrees less than last week).

This is not the first or last dog that had to pay for stupidity of its owner.
 
A sand cat cub (Felis margarita) is on show - one month old. You can see it in the enclosure opposite to Matamata pavilion entrance. The zoo wrote the mother digged a burrow in the sand floor for her cub so it was not visible untill recently. And I had no idea this species can dig holes.

A pair of grey partridge (Perdix perdix) has 8 little chicks. This family is on show.

36 young European ground squirrels (sousliks) bred at the zoo were released recently at small airport in Strakonice where the very last souslik colony in south Bohemia survives. Or better to say it was close to dying out because this spring, just last one wild animal was still alive.

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Chamois is being replaced by some species of tur (kozorožec). Still not officially announced by the zoo itself. But yesterday, local firefighter brigade released pics of them helping zoo staff to catch a sedated tur from a pond near the zoo that tried to escape by swimming away. Pics are not good enough for me to determine the exact species (would say west Caucasian but would be just a guess). But wording suggests the zoo has a group of at least 3 of them now.

Link to a short video of the poor animal trying to hide in willows while zoo vet is sneaking behind him

The zoo also replaced its Patagonian maras with Chakoan maras recently.
 
According to other sources, they are from Olomouc Zoo, so West Caucasian (i guess too) or Siberian.
 
The zoo got a lot of wet snow. It destroyed their large aviaries and they are without electricity. It will stay closed for next few days. Some winterhard birds (herons and eggrets) escaped.

Im surprised they left any birds out with such negative weather forecast. It was clear their area will get +35 cm of wet snow during the night. Yes, up to 75 cm came in the end but even those forecasted 35 cm were clear danger for large aviaries with flexible netting and wooden frames they use.
 
The zoo posted a video from this weekend.

The round aviary that survived wet snow is for golden eagles (successful breeding pair).

The deformed gate into a walk-through aviary is start of the flamingo aviary, home to the most prolific local flock of Greater flamingos (producing 30 chicks a year). The flock was locked in their heated house for the night so all survived ok.

The deer at the end is tropical Vietnamese sika deer. The zoo keeps bachelor herd for the EEP.


Hopefully the zoo re-opens soon. Its Christmas Lights decoration is loved by locals and brings in substantial income that is badly needed now.
 
Not really news but the zoo released a video/psa to tell the public not to feed the animals using images of animals lost due to being given inappropriate foods, including the pregnant elk/moose that passed on last year. It is sad that the zoo has to use shocking imagery to explain visitors why they should follow the most basic zoo rule out there but I hope this works. Zoo Plzen also has shared the video while citing their experiences with losing four animals to visitor feedings in 2024.
 
The zoo´s vet had to euthanise a young European spoonbill that was found at Vrbenske rybniky (fish ponds) with both its legs destroyed by metal jaw trap.

Source

Jaw traps is an illegal hunting method in our country. Since more than 20 years, it´s illegal to own / use / sell / offer them.

Vrbenske rybniky is a favourite (and very frequented) birdwatching locality. A system of old fish ponds is located at outskirts of town Ceske Budejovice. It has breeding spoonbills, night herons, little eggrets, black-necked grebes, pygmy cormorants, goldeneyes, red-crested pochards, several gull species, avocets, stillts...
 
Construction of wild horse pen and stables is underway. The zoo sacrificed former shetland pony, donkey and wallis sheep enclosures for it. (In my opinion, available space is still too small for wild horses. Why does such a space-restricted zoo feel the need for wild horses anyway?)

A 2-years old male corsak fox has arrived from Zie-Zoo and should get a female.

European wild cats have a litter of 1.2 adorable kittens.

The colony of village weavers has built nests and reared chicks. Their colony was down to last 7 birds when a new group of 35 arrived from Artis Amsterdam and joined it last year.

Small lizards species that have bred: ocellated skinks, ocellated lizard, ringed wall gecko

The annual report 2023 is online.
- total loss of birds due snow calamity was 54 individuals last winter.
- flamingo colony produced 33 surviving chicks
- zoo inventory at year-end was 281 species (45 mammal, 118 bird, 42 reptile, 9 amphibian, 38 fish, 29 invertebrate)

source - socials
 
Visited the facility yesterday, I must say a really lovely place, it had a very different atmosphere from other czech zoos I feel.
Unfortunately the weather was unforgiving and both on my way to the zoo and during the visit my shoes felt like a bog from the rain; staff was going left and right, probably to ensure a flood plan, they even left a whole staff fence open, I could've and wanted to ask if it was possible to visit the facility behind the scenes, but coming to mind that they were probably working their butts off I opted to wait for another day.
I came back this morning only to find it closed, there was no social media post about it when I checked and it wasn't mentioned in the english version of the website, it'll stay closed until the 16th (and I suspect monday too as rains are supposed to take a break from either tuesday or wednesday), the weather here is getting extreme, there hasn't been a single hour of dry sky for a few days, at least where I am.
For being such a cramped zoo it managed its space rather well methinks.
I'll maybe post a review later on.
 
The head zoologist mentioned on a podcast that an export of Himalayan brown bears to Indonesia is delayed because they wait for export/import documents processing already for almost a year.

Source
 
The latest zoo´s newletter is online and here are few snippets.

European wild cat:
- the zoo keeps the species since year 1985 (with a short break) and has bred 39 kittens since then, 3 of them had been rewilded in Slovakia
- current breeding pair consists of a male from Jihlava and female from Poland, the female is on show with her 3 kitens while the male is kept bts because the female kept him on short leash and even stole all his food, so he got separated and moved to get a break

Sousliks:
- the head zoologist coordinates souslik captive breeding within Czechia
- both colonies the zoo owns had good hibernation and total number of cubs that emerged in spring of 2024 was over 100 (one colony is on show in the zoo while the second one is located bts within wildlife rescue station at Rozovy - this station is owned and run by the zoo)
- a wild souslik colony at Strakonice airport got flooded by heavy rain in June and the zoo managed to rescue 9 almost-dead animals, they got rehabilitated at Rozovy and released in their colony after few weeks, also 25 captive-bred sousliks got released at this airport too
- altogether 116 zoo-bred sousliks could be rewilded this year in 3 different locations, they came from 7 different zoos

Reptile breeding in 2024:
- the zoo has 2 adult females of European pond turtle that lay eggs, 3 turtle babies were found in the exhibit pond this spring from eggs the staff failed to find last year, while additional 4 babies hatched in an incubator in August
- steppe agamas (Trapelus sanguinolentus) laid eggs in their outdoor tank where they incubated naturaly and 5 babies emerged from soil in July
- a single adult hardun female (Stellagama stellio stellio) laid three batches of eggs and so far 11 babies hatched and some eggs are still in incubator
- Turkish geckos live freely in whole terrarium house including visitors area and they breed consistently without human help
- dice snakes produced 6 babies
- a nothern viper born 6 babies, but 2 of them died when one tried to eat a smaller sibling and both have not survived it
- several ocellated lizard females laid eggs and 35 babies survived
- several ocellated scinks were born but the zoo doesnt mention how many survived
- ringed wall geckos laid many eggs and keepers found and relocated 8 babies
- green basilisks live freely in Matamata house, only 3 fresh babies could be caught so far
- Cuvier's dwarf caiman laid again eggs, 12 were moved into an incubator and 9 eggs remain in the nest that is tended by the mother
- 2 female South African leopard tortoises laid eggs that are in an incubator
- female yellow anaconda had 14 babies but 3 had to be euthanised because they were not developing well, 11 remaining youngs are kept bts and doing great
 
Jana said:
- Turkish geckos live freely in whole terrarium house including visitors area and they breed consistently without human help
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Oooooh so they're not escaped animals, I encountered one on a visit with some company and I was wondering why no keeper present there caught it.
 
Mickey said:
Oooooh so they're not escaped animals, I encountered one on a visit with some company and I was wondering why no keeper present there caught it.
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Yes, and they also have a job title - live pest control.
 
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